Tesla Motors - A New Book from Charles Morris

Share Article

How Elon Musk and Company Made Electric Cars Cool, and Sparked the Next Tech Revolution

(PRWEB)September 03, 2014

Tesla Motors represents the most exciting business and technology story of the 21st century. The most trusted sources in the automotive industry have called the Tesla Model S the most advanced, safest and best-performing car ever built - and it doesn’t use a drop of gasoline. Tesla has changed the way the public perceives electric vehicles, and inspired the major automakers to revive their own dormant efforts to sell EVs.

However, even amid the avalanche of media coverage that followed the triumph of the Model S, few have grasped the true significance of what is happening. Tesla has redefined the automobile, sparked a new wave of innovation comparable to the internet and mobile computing revolutions, and unleashed forces that will transform not just the auto industry, but every aspect of society.

While the Tesla story has been covered in hundreds of magazines (automotive, tech, business, green, lifestyle) and countless online videos, until now there has been no full-length book about the company, and nothing in any medium that explores its history from the beginning right up to the present day.

In this new book, Charles Morris begins with a brief history of electric vehicles and a biography of Tesla’s driving force, Elon Musk. He then takes you through the Tesla story from the beginning, told in the words of the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who made it happen.

It’s easy to see why readers find Tesla irresistible. CEO Elon Musk is a superstar entrepreneur, a “nauseatingly pro-US” immigrant, and the leader of two other cutting-edge companies. Tesla dares to challenge the biggest of the establishment behemoths and, so far at least, has handily beaten them at their own game.

There are many fascinating stories here: Martin Eberhard’s realization that there were many like himself, who loved fast cars but wanted to help the environment and bring about the post-oil age; the freewheeling first days, reminiscent of the early internet era; the incredible ingenuity of the team who built the Roadster; Tesla’s near-death experience and miraculous resurrection; the spiteful split between the company’s larger-than-life leaders; the gloves-off battles with hostile media such as Top Gear and the New York Times; and the media’s ironic about-face when the magnificent Model S won the industry’s highest honors, and naysayers became cheerleaders overnight. And the story is just beginning: Tesla has breathtakingly ambitious plans for the future.

As Senior Editor of Charged, the print magazine of the electric vehicle industry, author Charles Morris is one of the world’s most respected authorities on electromobility. His daily blog posts, which cover every facet of the electric-vehicle scene, including the technical, business, marketing, political and social aspects, number over 1,600, including over 300 about Tesla.

Charles was a participant and chronicler as the internet revolution unfolded in the 1990s, and he draws on that broad experience as he discusses Tesla’s lasting influence, and where it fits into the technological revolution that is transforming society.

Charles conducted personal interviews with two of Tesla’s founders, Marc Tarpenning and Ian Wright, and two members of the AC Propulsion team who were instrumental in the development of the Roadster, Tom Gage and Paul Carosa. He also cites over 300 secondary sources, with links to a wealth of further reading.